by Caterina Rando
Successful direct sellers run their businesses in lots of different ways. The one thing all successful direct sellers have in common is that they all run their businesses - whether full or part-time - like businesses,?Ǭ†not like hobbies or interests or something to do to pass the time.
Professionalism
You are the CEO of your own business enterprise. Whether you are part-time of full-time is irrelevant. Whether you do two shows a week or two a month, it benefits you and your bottom line to think and act like a pro.
You do not need to carry a briefcase or wear a blazer to be professional. Professionalism is the way you communicate and conduct yourself in big and small ways. Having a business email signature, a business voicemail message and a contact management system that helps you keep track of your contacts are just a few examples of little things that can make a big difference.
Look at the Numbers
Numbers tell the truth about the state of your business. Review your report monthly, quarterly, and of course annually, to see how it compares to previous periods. What is the average monthly sales volume of an active consultant on your team? How many shows on average are active consultants doing every month? How does that compare to last year? How about your retention rate? How long are consultants staying active after signing up? These are all numbers to pay attention to as you plan the next phase of your business.
Thinking and Planning
Once you know the truth about your business take some time to reflect, ruminate and contemplate how you want it to be different. Think about what challenges you need to address: what solutions you need to find and evaluate, what you are doing that is working and what is not. Once you have uncovered, discovered or come up with some answers, you are ready to make the decisions that will affect the future of your business.
Goals and Action Plan
A goal is a decision that has been made. After your thinking and planning time, make decisions about what you want to see happen in your business. Little gets accomplished without goal setting and action planning. In fact, it is important to note that successful business people make most decisions quickly. How about you?
Budget
Once you have your plan, evaluate how much it is going to cost you. Do this by taking a good look at your expenses last year for each expenditure category. How much did you spend last year on networking, gas, stamps and catalogs? What other major expenses do you incur and how much did you spend? This will tell you where to start with your budget for each area for the coming year.
Cash Flow
Debit cards are for consumers who want to prevent themselves from buying too many pairs of shoes - not for business builders that may need to float an expense for a few weeks to take advantage of an opportunity.
Use a credit card or bankcard that has a line of credit that you can use if you need it. For example you might have 10 shows next month, which will generate lots of revenue, and you might need some funds now to do those shows effectively. Do not get stuck short because you have no credit reserves.
Multi-Pronged Marketing Strategy
Doing shows to book shows and sending out catalogs when the new season starts is an okay start. It is not, however, a comprehensive marketing plan. To be successful in your business you want to use several different marketing approaches.?Ǭ† You may want to send out weekly or monthly specials via email, have a hostess appreciation event once a year, an open house each quarter, go networking once a week, and regularly update your website. Successful businesses do not hope to get sales and bookings - they try lots of different marketing strategies and consistently use the ones that work.
Consistent Hours and Consistent Action
Make a decision about when you are going to work and consistently keep that schedule. Consistency over time creates results. Decide when you will do shows, when you will make your team calls, when you will have your calls with your coach or upline, when you will do your marketing. The more you maintain a schedule, the more efficient you will be.
Ongoing Training
Successful business people take advantage of every opportunity to learn new ideas to be even more successful. How about you? Are you investing part of your revenue in learning the ideas that are going to have you make more money in less time? If not - get started now.
As you plan for the next level of success in your business, follow these ideas and watch your bookings, sales, recruiting and overall results increase consistently. The more you run your business like a business the greater will be your profits and satisfaction. Start now!
DirectSalesCoaching.com provides specialized tele-coaching and tele-courses for direct sellers at every stage of their career. If you want to increase your sales, bookings, grow your team or cultivate leaders we have a program to achieve your objective.
These programs significantly accelerate the time it takes for you to achieve your goals while providing skill building training that you can then turn around and share with your team and your leaders, resulting in duplicating the best strategies throughout your organization.
Caterina Rando, MA, MCC
Founder, DirectSalesCoaching.com
Caterina believes direct selling is the answer to the majority of challenges Americans face. She is committed to helping direct sellers succeed in business?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùand it shows. Throughout this site Caterina’s passion, experience, direct selling savvy and business acumen consistently comes through. Read more…
#
If you are looking for a home based business opportunity in the health and wellness industry Young Living Essential Oils may be right for you. Therapeutic grade essential oils is a very cool product line, it’s amazing what you can do with them, see some examples at my essential oil blog: http://Aromatherapy4uBLOG.com
Contact me if you think it’s a good match for you. Or, if you know someone wh would be a great fit for this business, please refer them to me.
Recent Comments